SALT LAKE CITY — Fully padded up the Utes took the practice field for day five of fall camp and the
coaches told us that the tempo is still not fast enough.

In accordance with the rest of college football trying to speed up the tempo (only half joking) the Utes are trying to do the same thing and on day five of camp the tempo wasn't where the head coach and offensive coordinator wanted.

"We have got to get better, that was not a very good performance," Dennis Erickson said. "We didn't go fast today. We've got to go faster and play faster than that."

SALT LAKE CITY — Day four of the Utes fall camp brought the best practice overall the team has seen and some injuries to the linebackers.

Beginning with the linebackers, Reshawn Hooker sustained another concussion on Wednesday, his third concussion in two years.

That will force Hooker to basically retire from football. This is frustrating coming off the news yesterday that the Utes were going to move him to safety due to Tevin Carter having not made it to cam yet.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utes put the pads on today and the players always seem to love to talk about that. Eric Rowe was no different. "Everybody is getting ready to hit again, it's the first day since spring ball," Rowe said smiling.

One of the most notable changes from day three has to be in the defensive backfield at safety. Junior college transfer Tevin Carter has not made it to camp yet so head coach Kyle Whittingham is starting to turn to plan "B" right now giving some snaps to linebacker Reshawn Hooker at strong safety.

"We don't know when that's going to happen," Whittingham said about Tevin Carter getting to Utah. "Potentially it may not happen."

SALT LAKE CITY — Fall camp has begun on the hill and according to head coach Kyle Whittingham there are three
position groups that have significantly
improved since a year ago.

Offensive line

It is difficult to begin this discussion without remembering what a disaster the offensive line was a year ago. The entire fall camp the line shifted, changed, reworked and it showed in the first couple games of the season.

SALT LAKE CITY — A third district judge issued a warrant for the arrest of an ex-University of Utah football player after he failed to show up for a sentencing hearing Monday.

Koliniasi "Niasi" Mona Leota, 24, a former defensive lineman for the Utes, was scheduled to be sentenced on charges of domestic violence in the presence of a child, a third-degree felony that carries a maximum of five years in prison.

The charge stemmed from a Feb. 17 incident at Leota's Salt Lake apartment, when Leota became angry and punched his wife in the head and face, according to charging documents.

SALT LAKE CITY — During an interview at PAC12 media day at Sony Studios in Los Angeles, Jeremiah Jensen asked
head coach Kyle Whittingham about the new football facility.

"It's something that we can't wait to recruit to," Whittingham said. "It is one thing to talk to recruits and show them the plans and show them the video of what it is going to look like, show them the building in progress, but to actually walk them through it and say, here is your facility. That's a whole different deal."

If there is one thing for the football program that needed to be updated, it was the facility. The academic center, stadium, and indoor facilities are right there with everyone else, but this football facility puts the program in a great position for recruiting.

SALT LAKE CITY — This week on the Crimson Corner Jeremiah Jensen, Robert Jackson,
and Mike Grant were at Pac-12 media day in Los Angeles. Trevor
Reilly tells us the Utes need to win now, Jake Murphy explains why
the offense will be better, and JJ has a conversation with Utes
head coach Kyle Whittingham.

SALT LAKE CITY — While the Utes have struggled offensively in their first two years in the Pac-12, with just a few tweaks from new co-offensive coordinator Dennis Erickson, Ute fans were able to witness what actually resembled a college football offense during the Red and White Spring Game.

Simple, short passes to the running backs out of the backfield and perfecting the zone read option drastically improved Utah's offensive output.

How much of that success can we expect to translate over into the regular season? That remains to be seen, but fans should be comforted in knowing that the offense is heading in the right direction.

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